“Loving” is the new film from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Ruth Negga, who also received a Golden Globe nomination in the same category. Joel Edgerton was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
What if it was illegal to marry the one you love? “Loving” celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), who fell in love and were married in 1958.
The couple had grown up in Central Point, a small town in Virginia that was more integrated than surrounding areas in the American South. Yet it was the state of Virginia — where they were making their home and starting a family — that first jailed and then banished them.
Richard and Mildred relocated with their children to the inner city of Washington, D.C. While relatives made them feel welcome there, the more urban environment did not feel like home to them. Ultimately, the pull of their roots in Virginia would spur Mildred to try to find a way back.
Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. Richard and Mildred returned home and their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.
“A landmark film! Astonishing!” — The New Yorker
“Some love stories are so powerful, they leave you shaking with a mix of joy, anger and grief. ‘Loving’ does just that.” — Jen Ortiz, Maria Claire
“ ‘Loving’ is deeply romantic and irresistibly human.” — Ben Dickinson, Elle